
Birthday:
02-22-1890
Deathday:
04-10-1975 (85 years)
Birthplace:
Acton, Indiana, USA
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.
Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude-ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs.
Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school.
Perhaps her most famous role is that of Ma Kettle, which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films.
By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.
Marjorie Main (born Mary Tomlinson, February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975) was an American actress, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player and for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Main worked in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit and in Chautauqua presentations, and debuted on Broadway in 1916. Her first film was A House Divided in 1931.
Main began playing upper class dowagers, but ultimately was typecast in abrasive, domineering, salty roles, for which her distinctive voice was well suited. She repeated her stage role in Dead End in the 1937 film version, and was subsequently cast repeatedly as the mother of gangsters. She again transferred a strong stage performance, as a dude-ranch operator in The Women, to film in 1939. At this time, she guest-starred on radio programs such as Columbia Presents Corwin and The Goldbergs.
Main was signed to a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract in 1940 and stayed with the studio until the mid-1950s. She made six films with Wallace Beery in the 1940s, including Barnacle Bill (1941), Jackass Mail (1942), and Bad Bascomb (1946). She played Sonora Cassidy, the chief cook, in The Harvey Girls (1946). The director George Sidney remarked in the commentary for the film that Miss Main was a "great lady" as well as a great actress who donated most of her paychecks over the years to the support of a school.
Perhaps her most famous role is that of Ma Kettle, which she first played in The Egg and I in 1947 opposite Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the part and portrayed the character in nine more Ma and Pa Kettle films.
By the early 1950s, she had appeared in several MGM musicals, including, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Belle of New York. She played Mrs. Wrenley in the studio's all-star film It's a Big Country (1951). In 1954, Marjorie Main played her last roles for the studio: Mrs. Hittaway in The Long, Long Trailer and Jane Dunstock in Rose Marie. In 1956, Main's performance as the widow Hudspeth in the hit film Friendly Persuasion was well-received, earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1958, Main appeared twice as rugged frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episodes "The Cassie Tanner Story" and "The Sacramento Story" on NBC's television series Wagon Train. In the first segment, she joins the wagon train, casts her romantic interest on Ward Bond as Major Adams, and helps the train locate needed horses despite a Paiute threat.
Read morearrow_drop_down
Their works
- Release swap_vert
- Title swap_vert
- Ratings swap_vert
close
Meet Me in St. Louis
Act like Katie
event1944 star_border 7
top_panel_open
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family up to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Mr. Imperium
Act like Mrs. Cabot
event1951 star_border 5.3
top_panel_open
A pretty singer/dancer is becoming an actress whereas the playboy crown prince is becoming a monarch. Each will have their clandestine romance interfered with by their changing circumstances.
The Women
Act like Lucy
event1939 star_border 7.1
top_panel_open
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
The Long, Long Trailer
Act like Mrs. Hittaway
event1954 star_border 6.8
top_panel_open
A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their marriage.
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
Act like Widow Hawkins
event1947 star_border 6.2
top_panel_open
Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are travelling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while enroute to California. During the stopover, a notorious criminal is murdered, and the two are charged with the crime.
A Woman's Face
Act like Emma Kristiansdotter
event1941 star_border 6.9
top_panel_open
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
Dead End
Act like Mrs. Martin
event1937 star_border 7
top_panel_open
Mobster "Baby Face" Martin returns home to visit the New York neighborhood where he grew up, dropping in on his mother, who rejects him because of his gangster lifestyle, and his old girlfriend, Francey, now a syphilitic prostitute. Martin also crosses paths with Dave, a childhood friend struggling to make it as an architect, and the Dead End Kids, a gang of young boys roaming the streets of the city's East Side slums.
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair
Act like Ma Kettle
event1952 star_border 5.9
top_panel_open
Ma and Pa are trying to raise enough money at the county fair to send their daughter Rosie to college. Ma competes in baking and Pa enters a trotter in a horse race, while Rosie takes up with handsome young Marvin Johnson.
The Egg and I
Act like Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
event1947 star_border 7
top_panel_open
World War II veteran Bob MacDonald surprises his new wife, Betty, by quitting his city job and moving them to a dilapidated farm in the country. While Betty gamely struggles with managing the crumbling house and holding off nosy neighbors and a recalcitrant pig, Bob makes plans for crops and livestock. The couple's bliss is shaken by a visit from a beautiful farm owner, who seems to want more from Bob than just managing her property.
Friendly Persuasion
Act like The Widow Hudspeth
event1956 star_border 6.6
top_panel_open
The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the rules of their religion in everyday life but when Southern troops pass the area they are in real trouble. Should they fight, despite their peaceful attitude?
The Shepherd of the Hills
Act like Granny Becky
event1941 star_border 6.6
top_panel_open
Young Matt Matthews, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted Matt's mother and left her to die. His obsession contributes to the hatred rampant in the mountains. However, the arrival of a stranger, Daniel Howitt, begins to positively affect the mountain people, who learn to shed their hatred under his gentle influence.
The Belle of New York
Act like Mrs Phineas Hill
event1952 star_border 5.5
top_panel_open
In squeaky-clean New York at the turn of the century, playboy Charlie Hill falls so much in love that he can walk on air. The object of his affections is beautiful Angela Bonfils, a mission house worker in the Bowery. He promises to reform his dissolute life, even trying to do an honest day's work.
Summer Stock
Act like Esme
event1950 star_border 6.7
top_panel_open
To Jane Falbury's New England farm comes a troup of actors to put up a show, invited by Jane's sister. At first reluctant she has them do farm chores in exchange for food. Her reluctance becomes attraction when she falls in love with the director, Joe, who happens to be her sister's fiance.
Stella Dallas
Act like Mrs. Martin
event1937 star_border 6.9
top_panel_open
After divorcing a society man, a small-town woman tries to build a better life for their daughter.
Undercurrent
Act like Lucy
event1946 star_border 5.8
top_panel_open
After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael, his mysterious long-lost brother.
Ma and Pa Kettle
Act like Phoebe 'Ma' Kettle
event1949 star_border 7.2
top_panel_open
The Kettles and their fifteen children are about to be evicted from their rundown rustic home when Pa wins the grand prize by coming up with a new tobacco slogan. Birdie Hicks is jealous of the family's new wealth, which includes a completely automated modern home, and accuses Pa of stealing the slogan. Reporter Kim Parker proves Birdie wrong and marries Tom Kettle.
Heaven Can Wait
Act like Mrs. Strabel
event1943 star_border 6.9
top_panel_open
Spoiled playboy Henry van Cleve dies and arrives at the entrance to Hell, a final destination he is sure he deserves after living a life of profligacy. The devil, however, isn't so sure Henry meets Hell's standards. Convinced he is where he belongs, Henry recounts his life's deeds, both good and bad, including an act of indiscretion during his 25-year marriage to his wife, Martha, with the hope that "His Excellency" will arrive at the proper judgment.
Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki
Act like Ma' Kettle
event1955 star_border 6.8
top_panel_open
Ma and Pa, along with daughter Rosie, go off to Hawaii in answer to cousin Rodney's call for help running his pineapple farm while he recovers from an illness. Pa soon causes a major explosion and gets himself kidnapped.
Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation
Act like Ma Kettle
event1952 star_border 7.2
top_panel_open
The Kettles are in Paris along with their daughter-in-law's parents the Parkers. Pa tries to buy racy postcards. He also gets in big trouble when he is given a letter to deliver to Adolph Wade, a spy who gets killed by spies Inez and Cyrus Kraft.
Tennessee Johnson
Act like Mrs. Maude Fisher
event1942 star_border 6.1
top_panel_open
The tumultuous presidency of 19th-president Andrew Johnson is chronicled in this biopic. The story begins with Johnson's boyhood and covers his early life. During the Civil War, Johnson stays a staunch Unionist and upon Lincoln's reelection in 1864, becomes his Vice President. After Lincoln's assassination, Johnson becomes the President and became the first U.S. president ever to be impeached.
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
Act like Ma Kettle
event1950 star_border 6.1
top_panel_open
When Pa wins a jingle-writing contest, he and Ma head for New York City. They they get in trouble with gangsters when they lose some stolen money which they had already agreed to deliver to one of the thugs.
Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm
Act like Ma Kettle
event1951 star_border 6.3
top_panel_open
The Kettles leave their ultra-modern home and return to the country looking for uranium. Ma and Tom's mother-in-law, Mrs. Parker, fight over whether their grandchild will be raised "hygiencially."
It's a Big Country
Act like Mrs. Wrenley
event1951 star_border 5.3
top_panel_open
Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas.
The Kettles in the Ozarks
Act like Ma Kettle
event1956 star_border 6.4
top_panel_open
Ma and the kids head out to help Pa's brother Sedgewick with the his farm in Mournful Hollow, Arkansas. Things get tighter when a couple of bootleggers rent Sedge's barn to manufacture moonshine. With Ma and the kids, the bootleggers get their pay.
Honky Tonk
Act like Mrs. Varner
event1941 star_border 6.4
top_panel_open
Fast-talking con-man and grifter Candy Johnson rises to be the corrupt boss of Yellow Creek, but his wife's alcoholic father tries to set things right.
The Bugle Sounds
Act like Susie 'Suz'
event1942 star_border 6
top_panel_open
An old-time cavalry sergeant's resistance to change could cost him his post.
Jackass Mail
Act like Clementine 'Tina' Tucker
event1942 star_border 7
top_panel_open
An unknowing orphan idolizes the horse thief/mail robber who has shot his father.
Angels Wash Their Faces
Act like Mrs. Arkelian
event1939 star_border 6.4
top_panel_open
A young man just released from a reformatory moves to a new neighborhood with his sister, intending to start a new life. However, he gets mixed up with the local mob boss and corrupt politicians and soon finds himself being framed for an arson and murder he didn't commit.
The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm
Act like Ma Kettle
event1957 star_border 6.1
top_panel_open
Ma and Pa do their bit to hook lumberman Brad Johnson up with spoiled socialite Sally Flemming. Ma teaches Sally how to behave like a hick so she'll be compatible with Brad.
Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'
Act like Maribel Mathews
event1948 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
A fast-talking salesman is "kidnapped" by a town, which intends to use him in its annual race with a rival community.
Murder, He Says
Act like Mamie Fleagle Smithers Johnson
event1945 star_border 6.6
top_panel_open
Pete Marshall is sent as a replacement to the mountain district town of Plainville when a public opinion surveyor who went there goes missing. Visiting the hillbilly family of Mamie Fleagle, Pete begins to suspect that she and her two sons have murdered the surveyor. Pete then believes that Mamie is slowly poisoning wealthy Grandma Fleagle, who has put a vital clue to her fortune in a nonsensical embroidered sampler.
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
Act like Harriet O'Malley
event1950 star_border 6
top_panel_open
Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.
The Wild Man of Borneo
Act like Irma, the Cook
event1941 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
A medicine show man tries to con people into believing he's a legitimate stage actor.
New Deal Rhythm
Act like Arizona Representative
event1933 star_border 5.5
top_panel_open
Plotless musical revue celebrating President Franklin D. Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration.
The Shadow
Act like Hannah Gillespie
event1937 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
Mary Gillespie is restoring the Col. Gillespie Circus to its former splendor after her father's death. With the help of her publicist boyfriend Jim, the sell-out crowds are returning to the big top. Egotistical equestrian star Senor Martinet, however, holds $60,000 of notes signed by the Colonel and due in 24 hours. When a mysterious shadowy figure is seen on the circus lot, and Martinet is murdered in the center ring during his performance, there are suspects aplenty, including Vindecco, Martinet's badly abused hunchback assistant.
Barnacle Bill
Act like Marge Cavendish
event1941 star_border 7.7
top_panel_open
A fishing boat captain searches for romance in hopes of improving his financial picture.
I Take This Woman
Act like Gertie
event1940 star_border 6.2
top_panel_open
On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker's suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic in the slums.
Rose Marie
Act like Lady Jane Dunstock
event1954 star_border 4
top_panel_open
Rose Marie Lemaitre, an orphan living in the Canadian wilderness, falls in love with her guardian, Mike Malone, an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The feeling is mutual. But, when she leaves to learn proper etiquette, Rose Marie meets a trapper named James Duval, who also falls for her. Further complications arise when Native American Chief Black Eagle -- a rival of Duval's -- is murdered.
Lucky Night
Act like Mrs. Briggs
event1939 star_border 6.6
top_panel_open
Cora, an heiress who gives it all up for the excitement of looking for a job and living on her own, meets up with unemployed and flat broke Dick. The two of them embark on a wild night of gambling and winning, where everything they touch turns to gold. Pretty soon they're in love and, to the horror of Cora's father, married.
Big Jack
Act like Flapjack Kate
event1949 star_border 6
top_panel_open
Wallace Beery, in his final film, plays a bandit in this period drama set in Colonial America.
Bad Bascomb
Act like Abbey Hanks
event1946 star_border 6.2
top_panel_open
A western bandit is reformed by his love for a little girl.
We Were Dancing
Act like Judge Hawkes
event1942 star_border 4.2
top_panel_open
A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becoming houseguests at the homes of wealthy American socialites.
Rationing
Act like Iris Tuttle
event1944 star_border 3
top_panel_open
A small-town butcher has problems coping with meat rationing.
The Wrong Road
Act like Martha Foster
event1937 star_border 4.3
top_panel_open
A young married couple whose plans for their life together haven't turned out as expected decide to rob the bank where the husband works of $100,000, then hide the money in a safe place and return for it after they serve out their sentences. All goes according to plan until they get out of prison, when they find that they're being trailed by an insurance investigator and the husband's old cellmate, who has decided that he wants a cut of the money.
The Law and the Lady
Act like Julia Wortin
event1951 star_border 6.1
top_panel_open
A former housemaid now works as a confidence trickster, but her plans for a big job in California go awry.
The Affairs of Martha
Act like Mrs. McKissick
event1942 star_border 5.8
top_panel_open
Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.
Boy of the Streets
Act like Mrs. Mary Brennan
event1938 star_border 5
top_panel_open
Cocky young street kid worships his father, a sleazy political operative.
Under the Big Top
Act like Sara Post
event1938 star_border 5.5
top_panel_open
Director Karl Brown's 1938 circus drama stars Marjorie Main as a tough, fur-coat-wearing circus boss who raises her orphaned niece to be a trapeze star.
The Man Who Cried Wolf
Act like Amelia Bradley
event1937 star_border 5.5
top_panel_open
An actor plots "the perfect crime" by confessing to murders he didn't commit.
Women Without Names
Act like Mrs. Lowery
event1940 star_border 4.8
top_panel_open
Joyce and Fred MacNeil's honeymoon comes to an abrupt and unsatisfying halt when Fred is accused of murder. Railroaded into prison through the efforts of politically ambitious assistant DA Marlin, Fred awaits his doom on Death Row, while Joyce works overtime on the outside to clear her husband's name
Girls' School
Act like Miss Armstrong
event1938 star_border 6
top_panel_open
Wealthy high school girls are sent to a boarding school to learn proper etiquette. Linda Simpson stays out all night. She tells her roommate, Betty Fleet, that it was because she's planning to elope. Linda gets in trouble when the faculty finds out from a monitor's report submitted by reluctant Natalie Freeman, a poor girl attending on scholarship.
Too Hot to Handle
Act like Miss Wayne
event1938 star_border 5.8
top_panel_open
While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he manages to hire her as his assistant. During an adventurous expedition through the jungles of South America, her opinion of him begins to change.
The Show-Off
Act like Mrs. Fisher
event1946 star_border 7
top_panel_open
Chaos is brought to a family when daughter marries a brash young man met on a blind date.
Little Tough Guy
Act like Mrs. Boylan
event1938 star_border 6
top_panel_open
The son of a man sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit vows to become a criminal himself. He starts his own street gang, and their crime spree is financed by a mysterious young man--who turns out to be the son of the District Attorney who sent the boy's father to the electric chair.
Romance of the Limberlost
Act like Nora
event1938
top_panel_open
An orphaned girl is being raised in the Limberlost by her aunt, who hates her because the girl's mother married the man that the aunt loved. The girl's existence is close to being servitude bondage, and her only companions are the birds and the animals of the forest. She meets and falls in love with a young man whose ambition is to be a lawyer. But her aunt is arranging for her to be married to the wealthiest man in the Limberlost, a drunken, coarse bully.
Tish
Act like Miss Letitia 'Tish' Carberry
event1942 star_border 5.7
top_panel_open
In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a matchmaker.
Two Thoroughbreds
Act like Hildegarde 'Hildy' Carey
event1939 star_border 2
top_panel_open
A farm boy trains a wild colt on his own.
Susan and God
Act like Mary
event1940 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
Act like Ma Kettle
event1954 star_border 5.8
top_panel_open
The Indians try to make a fire in the Kettles fireplace the old fashion way, the smoke signal way. Judges are a comin' to award a child with a scholarship. However, who ever has the nicest looking farm and raises their kids in a good enviroment has a chance of winning.
There Goes My Heart
Act like Fireless Cooker Customer (uncredited)
event1938 star_border 7.2
top_panel_open
An heiress takes a job as a department store clerk.
Gentle Annie
Act like Annie Goss
event1944 star_border 5.2
top_panel_open
The Goss family live on a farm they call the dust bowl where the wind blows during the day and the coyotes howl at night. When the train is robbed, everyone thinks that Cotton and Violet were the ones that did the job, but no one has any proof. US Marshal Lloyd Richland comes into town in disguise to find the truth and he finds that the sheriff is corrupt and that the Goss family is gosh darn nice. They take in Richland and a stranded woman named Mary without any questions. Cotton believes that Sheriff Tatum shot their pa in the back, and the sheriff is now trying to plug the boys. Richland is looking for the train robbers, and at the same time is keeping an eye on Tatum and the lovely young Mary.
Wyoming
Act like Mehitabel
event1940 star_border 5.9
top_panel_open
With the army after him and his partner deserting, Reb decides that a change of scenery would be nice so he heads for Wyoming with Dave.
The Harvey Girls
Act like Sonora Cassidy
event1946 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
On a train trip out west to become a mail-order bride, Susan Bradley meets a cheery crew of young women traveling out to open a "Harvey House" restaurant at a remote whistle-stop.
Prison Farm
Act like Matron Brand
event1938 star_border 5.7
top_panel_open
Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy friend (Lloyd Nolan). The male crook is sentence to six months on a prison farm populated by both men and women (segregated, of course). Ross is also incarcerated, suffering the cruelties of the sadistic male and female guards (including J. Carroll Naish and future "Ma Kettle" Marjorie Main!)
Turnabout
Act like Nora, the Cook
event1940 star_border 6
top_panel_open
Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue who grants their wish and they wind up living each other's life.
Three Comrades
Act like Old woman by phone (uncredited)
event1938 star_border 7.2
top_panel_open
A love story centered on the lives of three young German soldiers in the years following World War I. Their close friendship is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman who is dying of tuberculosis.
Test Pilot
Act like Landlady
event1938 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Another Thin Man
Act like Mrs. Dolley (uncredited)
event1939 star_border 7.1
top_panel_open
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
They Shall Have Music
Act like Mrs. Miller
event1939 star_border 6
top_panel_open
The future is bleak for a troubled boy from a broken home in the slums. He runs away when his step father breaks his violin, ending up sleeping in the basement of a music school for poor children.
King of the Newsboys
Act like Mrs. Stephens (uncredited)
event1938 star_border 6
top_panel_open
A poor young man's girlfriend leaves him for a gangster, who has the money and power she wants and the young man doesn't have. Determined to show her that he can be a success--and how much of a mistake she made by leaving him--he starts up a newspaper distribution business that is soon the biggest in the city, but things don't turn out exactly the way he wanted them to.
Fast Company
Act like Ma Parkson
event1953 star_border 7
top_panel_open
The temperamental Carol Maldon leaves New York behind to take control of her father's stable, she inherited. Rick Grayton is a horse racing trainer who lucked into training a champ, the horse 'Gay Fleet'. Only nobody knows 'Gay Fleet' is any good yet. Rick has been intentionally losing so that he can buy the horse with a low-ball offer to the owner Carol. However Mercedes Bellway, a rival barn and in love with Rick, figures out his plan and tells Carol.
Ricochet Romance
Act like Pansy Jones
event1954 star_border 7
top_panel_open
Marjorie Main is the whole show in the Universal programmer Ricochet Romance. Playing the outspoken new cook at a rundown dude ranch, Marjorie forces everyone around her to pitch in and bring some life back into the place. She also sets her sights on old layabout Chill Wills, scheming to rope the critter into marriage. Veteran comedy director Charles W. Lamont moves the proceedings along with style, never missing an opportunity for a low-comedy slapstick turn. The most surprising aspect of Ricochet Romance is that it is not an entry in Marjorie Main's Ma and Pa Kettle series.
A House Divided
Act like Townswoman at Wedding (uncredited)
event1931 star_border 6.2
top_panel_open
A New England fisherman's second wife prefers his son.
The Trial of Mary Dugan
Act like Mrs. Collins
event1941 star_border 5
top_panel_open
Mary Dugan is a young woman accused of murdering her billionaire lover. In the process, his defense lawyer acts wrongly against them, and is replaced by a young lawyer, the brother of the accused
Johnny Come Lately
Act like 'Gashouse' Mary
event1943 star_border 6.7
top_panel_open
Cagney is a human dynamo as a drifter who helps save ailing Grace George from losing her newspaper. The pace is fast, and audiences of all ages will be pleased. The supporting cast, have all the small-town characterizations down pat -- with Margaret Hamilton a standout. Cagney himself, had genuine affection for this film, and listed it among his top five movie-making experiences at a retrospective the year before he died. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, in 2013.
Music in the Air
Act like Anna (Uncredited)
event1934 star_border 4.8
top_panel_open
A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead role in a new operetta.
Dark Command
Act like Mrs. Cantrell / Mrs. Adams
event1940 star_border 6.3
top_panel_open
When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place, especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local banker. Politics is in the air however. It's just prior to the civil war and there is already a sharp division in the Territory as to whether it will remain slave-free. When he gets the opportunity to run for marshal, Seton finds himself running against the respected local schoolteacher, William Cantrell. Not is what it seems however. While acting as the upstanding citizen in public, Cantrell is dangerously ambitious and is prepared to do anything to make his mark, and his fortune, on the Territory. When he loses the race for marshal, he forms a group of raiders who run guns into the territory and rob and terrorize settlers throughout the territory. Eventually donning Confederate uniforms, it is left to Seton and the good citizens of Lawrence to face Cantrell and his raiders in one final clash.
Hot Saturday
Act like Gossip in Window (uncredited)
event1932 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
A pretty but virtuous small-town bank clerk is the victim of a vicious rumor from an unsuccessful suitor that she spent the night with a notorious womanizer.
The Captain Is a Lady
Act like Sarah May Willett
event1940 star_border 6
top_panel_open
Because of a bad investment, Captain and Mrs. Peabody are evicted from their home. Mrs. Peabody finds lodging at a retirement home, but as only single women are allowed, the Captain has to make other arrangements. However, after witnessing their tearful goodbye, the home's residents vote to allow the couple to move in together. The Captain is a reluctant lodger, uncomfortable at being surrounded by so much femininity, and bristles when his pals start referring to him as "Old Lady". The time has come for Captain Peabody to reassert his manhood!
Broken Lullaby
Act like Frau Schmidt - Townswoman (uncredited)
event1932 star_border 7.5
top_panel_open
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Art Trouble
Act like Woman Who Sits on Painting
event1934 star_border 6.5
top_panel_open
Harry Gribbon and Shemp Howard enter the world of fine art in Paris.
Harry Fox and His Six American Beauties
Act like Statler Hotel Beauty
event1929 star_border 1
top_panel_open
Harry Fox performs his vaudeville act.
Close Relations
Act like Woman in Depot (uncredited)
event1933
top_panel_open
Roscoe believes he is in line to receive a large inheritance, but the reality is considerably more psychopathic-- no, nuts.
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
Act like Self
event1936 star_border 6
top_panel_open
Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Frank McHugh plays with his children; a visit to the West Side Tennis Club affords glimpses of many stars.
Crime Without Passion
Act like Backstage Wardrobe Woman (uncredited)
event1934 star_border 5.8
top_panel_open
Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown. When he wants to end the dalliance with Carmen, she is so distraught that she becomes suicidal. Seizing the gun from Carmen, he accidentally shoots her, and thinking she's dead, concocts a series of increasingly outlandish alibis to cover his tracks under the guidance of a ghostly apparition that is his alter ego.
The World of Abbott and Costello
Act like Widow Hawkins in The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap
event1965 star_border 6.3
top_panel_open
A compilation of clips from 19 Abbott & Costello features: The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap, In the Navy, Hit the Ice, Who Done It?, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Mexican Hayride, Hold That Ghost, Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, Little Giant, In Society, Ride 'Em Cowboy, The Naughty Nineties, Buck Privates Come Home, Buck Privates, Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, Lost in Alaska, Comin' Round the Mountain, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. - Written by Tom Weaver
Penitentiary
Act like Miss Katie Mathews
event1938
top_panel_open
The story of a D.A. who becomes a prison warden and winds up overseeing the sentence of a man he prosecuted.
December Bride
(1 ep.)
event1954 star_border 5.5
top_panel_open
December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959, adapted from the original CBS radio network series that aired from June 1952 through September 1953.
Wagon Train
Act like Cassie Tanner (1 ep.)
event1957 star_border 6.3
top_panel_open
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series.
The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
Show more expand_more
keyboard_double_arrow_down